Philosophical issues

There is the additional philosophical issue of whether to have a large number of simple phases with Few options each, or a small number of complex phases with numerous options. The issues are a little different from struc turing a complex computer program into subprograms. Each possible alternative will have advantages and disadvantages. 

Gavroglu, K. Philosophical issues in the history of chemistry. Synthese 111 (1997) 283-304. 

Albert Tauber. Let us not complain here about reductionism. Rather let s do reductive studies with more sophistication, taking into account of context and complexity, which is what you have done. The philosophical issue seems to me to remain the same, if one, in fact, is going to discuss molecular biology, and stay at the level that you have. So without an alternative philosophical position, I don t see this as a criticism of reduction per se. 

Another philosophical issue centers on whether a method should be a protocol specified down to the last detail (i.e. be truly black-box ), or whether it should merely outline a general approach with minor details to be decided on a case-by-case basis. Obviously a method where empirical parameterization is kept to the absolute minimum or is absent altogether will offer more degrees of freedom in this regard than the one where a minor change in the protocol would, for consistency, require reparameterization against a large experimental data set. Yet... 

Mischel, T. (ed.) (1977) Editorial introduction to The Self. Psycho-logical and Philosophical Issues, Oxford Blackwell. 

There are two aspects to confronting this question a practical and what might be called a philosophical. On the practical aspect impinge questions of time, reliability, and accuracy. The philosophical issue is subtler. 

In this chapter, I address both the interpretive and philosophical issues concerning prime matter, though my primary focus is philosophical in nature. My aim is to show that a philosophically interesting... 

Unlike chauvinist and historical arguments, philosophical arguments that seek to head off a conclusion of intelligent design are substantive they affect the issues on an intellectual level, not just an emotional one. There are several different philosophical issues. Tet s examine them. 

Having established the need for testing, it may be interesting to consider and reflect on some philosophical issues on the topic of testing. 

First of all, it is highly doubtful in general that systems of higher complexity can be exhaustively described and understood in terms elaborated for the description of simpler systems. This is, in essence, a purely philosophical issue ... 

This is nothing more than a statement of the Problem of Induction in scientific research, and the interested reader is referred to Popper for a detailed discussion and analysis of such philosophical issues. 

A comprehensive discussion of the classic, philosophical issue, mind-brain dualism, is beyond the scope of this book. (The reader is referred to Goodman 1991 Young... 

Every discipline has particular problems with some philosophical coloring. Those in quantum theory are famous those in psychology seem endless those in biology and economics seem more sparse and esoteric. If, for whatever reason, one s concern is the conceptual or theoretical problems of a particular science, there is no substitute for that science, and chemistry is just one among others. Certain sciences naturally touch on substantive areas of traditional philosophical concern quantum theory on metaphysics, for example, psychology on the philosophy of mind, and economics and statistics on theories of rationality. In these cases, there is a special interest in particular sciences because they may reform prior philosophical theories or recast philosophical issues or, conversely, because philosophy may inform these subjects in fundamental ways. That is not true, in any obvious way, of chemistry. 

Sklar, L. 1993. Physics and Chance Philosophical Issues in the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. 

Before getting down to the business of examining the philosophical issues, however, let us take a brief look at the part played by isomerism in the development of chemistry. 

Gavroglu, Kostas. 1997. "Philosophical Issues in the History of Chemistry." Synthese, 111 283-304. 

Many explanations have been advanced for the fact that philosophers have so stubbornly neglected chemistry as if it were virtually non-existent. Is it the lack of big questions in chemistry, its close relationship to technology, or the historically rooted pragmatism of chemists and their lack of interest in metaphysical issues Or, is the alleged reduction of chemistry to physics (quantum mechanics) the main obstacle, so that, if chemistry were only an applied branch of physics, there would be no genuine philosophical issue of chemistry ... 

What philosophers of chemistry can learn, and in my view should learn, from the philosophy of biology is the discovery of philosophical issues that derive from the peculiarities of chemistry. There is no simple rule or recipe to do that, as philosophy is a creative enterprise. However, one can take the branches of philosophy as guides, as analytical instruments rather than as sets of perennial issues. To illustrate that, I finally provide a few examples from my own recent work, arranged according to different branches of philosophy and each with reference to, in my view, obvious peculiarities of chemistry.23... 

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